


Impasse

by FroldGapp



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith is a Good Boy, M/M, Season/Series 08, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 06:24:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17017413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FroldGapp/pseuds/FroldGapp
Summary: From S8's episode The Grudge: What would have happened if Shiro had intervened when Keith was taken hostage by Zethrid.





	Impasse

‘Something’s wrong.’

Veronica muted the channel and spun in her her seat. Shiro stood behind her, eyes narrowed at her console and bionic fist clenched. The bridge was otherwise quiet, everyone happy to get some down-time waiting for the lions to rendezvous.

‘What do you –?’

‘Hello? Veronica?’ Keith’s voice prompted over the connection. ‘Please respond. I await your ETA.’

‘That’s not him.’ Shiro’s words were quiet and doubting, hung on a question.

‘Hello? Come in. We require an update.’ Keith’s voice was tinny and broken across the channel, but it was undoubtedly him.

‘Shiro, are you –? That’s crazy. It’s Keith.’

Veronica sighed as Shiro approached the console. He unmuted the channel with more force than necessary and spoke through gritted teeth. ‘What have you done with Keith Kogane?’

There was a beat of silence, then the line went dead.

OoO

The blackened earth around them spewed lava in red-hot, furious showers. The readings for the atmosphere were bleak; death a guarantee in only a matter of hours. They had traced Keith’s armour and found it abandoned. Shiro had punched a boulder so hard it split in two and it was only when they found the unconscious body of a pirate that some hope was restored. But that hope wasn’t to last long.

Balanced at the edge of a high, treacherous platform was Keith, an arm the size of his waist clamped across his throat. An enormous alien had him; impressive in her build and fury. He struggled against the alien’s chest, but she was a mountain; single eye narrowed at Shiro and Acxa as they approached. MFE jets hung in the air, blue lights obscured by the thick clouds of ash.

‘Does anyone have the shot?’ James asked. But the answer was clear: fire at the assailant and risk striking Keith. Make the shot, and risk the alien pulling Keith over the ledge with her.

Veronica crept behind an outcrop of porous rock as Acxa and Shiro moved forward, the latter raising clouds of dust in his stride. As silently as she could, Veronica primed her rifle and waited for the chance.

‘Zethrid,’ began Acxa, ‘don’t do this.’

Keith issued a short ha! of alarm as thick claws readjusted on his face and neck. As Zethrid spilled her bitter response, Keith made small adjustments, trying to drag in a breath–press his dangling feet to the hot earth. His face, lip split and cheek bruising, was utterly without panic though. His defiant eyes stared, his lips curled in a snarl.

‘It’s over,’ said Acxa. ‘You’re surrounded.’

‘You think this deters me Acxa,’ growled Zethrid. I welcome death now that Ezor’s gone.’

There was a change, sudden and sure as a fire extinguished. Keith seemed to seize and then collapse in Zethrid’s hold, wide eyes staring. Veronica immediately looked to Shiro, but his broad back was facing her. Keith, in the short time Veronica had known him, proved to be a sensitive, compassionate man. Impulsive too, she wagered, if Lance’s occasional jibes were anything to go by. And Zethrid’s words had more than spoken to him; they had convinced him. She looked once again to Keith, fine face smeared with soot and blood. Her heart thudded in her chest.  _I welcome death._  It was clear. Here was a boy that by all accounts had lost everything and though he walked through fire to get it back, he  _understood_. He understood her.

But Zethrid was beyond understanding. And if murdering Keith made some small sense of the world in her final moments, then so be it.

‘Shiro,’ Veronica said. ‘Shiro! You have to act. Now!’

But the man was frozen; legs like girders driven into the dirt.

‘Shiro!’

Zethrid drew her pistol and pressed it against Keith’s head. He didn’t even flinch. She drew him up, a horrible wet gasp escaping him. His fingers slipped as he tried to keep grounded.

‘Do it,’ he said, spit bubbling on his teeth and lips.

‘Don’t worry,’ Zethrid spoke into his hair, her eye still trained on Acxa. ‘I will.’

A laser split the air, the sound ricocheting off the dark rocks around them. Veronica had already re-primed her rifle before she realised she’d taken the shot. Zethrid’s head snapped back, and then she was stumbling, Keith tottering backwards with her. Back towards the edge of the outcrop.

Acxa screamed, charging towards them. At last, Shiro moved, darting forward with her as Zethrid’s heavy foot found air and nothing more. She pitched backwards, cloak billowing. Keith’s hands flew up as he followed.

Shiro lunged at the cliff edge and landed on his belly, body dragged forward by a blessed weight. Veronica sobbed.

‘I have him,’ Shiro panted over the comms.

‘And I have him,’ Acxa dead-panned.

They groaned with the strain as they struggled to pull Keith up, but it shouldn’t have been so hard between the two of them. Then Keith made all clear as he croaked through Shiro’s mic: ‘I won’t let her die.’

Shiro’s voice was a tender thing in the hellish smoke and fire of the planet when he replied, ‘I know.’


End file.
